Most of you are in school because you want to live a better life; many of you probably think about what it might mean to live a good life. Is a good life one full of pleasure and devoid of suffering? A moral life? A long and healthy life? Of course, it is possible that the good life cannot be defined at all and simply has to be lived and attended to.
Let's start with the premise that most of our reliable, useful knowledge comes from science. Scientists work according to philosophically sound methodologies, which include commitments to impersonal inquiry and trying, always, to find the data most likely to defeat their favorite hypotheses; they work in open communities of other scientists, all of whom are obligated to be vigilantly critical of their colleagues' work; they generally qualify their claims to knowledge based on the limitations of their methodologies and their understandings of the probabilities of their claims being incorrect. But can science help us to be
, to live a good life? Some think that science can help us recognize, even define, our values, and we will explore this possibility from the perspectives of neuroscience, brain evolution, psychology, social science and philosophy. Some say that science can never answer questions of morality or what it means to live a good life, or even a better life; something more is necessary, they say.
Reading and written assignments, faculty presentations and deliberate discussions with vigilantly critical colleagues will assist students in an independent inquiry about how science can help a person live better with regard to some question of critical concern to the investigator(s). This program explores the power and limitations of scientific inquiry. Students should be able to imagine themselves discussing neurotransmitters and the moral life in the same sentence, but they should know that any education aims, finally, to help them know themselves.

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...—Hölderlin, "Bread and Wine"
We will study art history, literature, philosophy and music in their social and historical contexts in order to understand the Romantic avant-garde thinkers and artists, outsiders in 19th- and early 20th-century Europe, and their tenuous but fruitful dialogue with mainstream culture and the emerging popular culture of the laboring class. We will emphasize French Romanticism, but will also consider the pan-European nature of the phenomenon. This era offers a figurative battlefield where concepts of art, nature and self, order and chaos, locked swords, testing the limits of rational thought. French language study will be an important component of our weekly work; students will study French at one of four levels, from beginning to advanced.The 19th century was an era of immense political change spanning revolutions, empires and finally the establishment of democracy at home, just as European imperialism spread across Africa and Asia. We will study ways in which average women and men crafted their own identities and responded to the larger social forces of industrialization, the creation of a new working class, the solidification of gender and class roles, the rise of modern cities and the redefinition of the criminal, the socially-acceptable and the outsider.In fall, our work will begin with the paintings, poems and ideas of the early Romantics. The Romantics privileged feeling, intuition and empathy. Like adepts in an ancient mystery cult, they sought to commune with Nature. Romantic philosophers, from Schopenhauer to Nietzsche, spoke of Becoming rather than Being. Rejecting Classical order, clarity and restraint, they envisioned a pure art, beyond language and depiction, which speaks musically through color, passion, suggestion, enigmatically, as do dreams.In winter, focus will turn to the late Romantics. Decadents pushed the Romantic temperament and aesthetic to extremes through self parody and the aesthetic of fragmentation. Symbolists attempted to express the inexpressible through their art. Yet Mallarmé, Wilde and Yeats, Moreau and Gauguin, among others, helped prepare the “rites of spring” of the dawning 20th century, the arising vanguard of modernist and postmodern movements.In spring quarter, students may pursue individual research/creative projects on campus or may travel to France for 10 weeks. There they will study in a Rennes, Brittany, language school, do cultural and historical study in Paris and Lyon, as well as make side trips for research of their own.In this program, students will gain a significant grasp of key ideas in art, history and thought within their context, and will have the opportunity to specialize, creating advanced work in their choice of history, art history or writing and literature. We expect strong interest and background in humanities, and considerable self-discipline and motivation. The workload, including French language study, will be substantial and rigorous. Students will work in interdisciplinary all-program sessions and assignments, as well as choose one of three possible seminar groups. These emphasize: 1) literature and philosophy, 2) history, and 3) photography and visual arts, practice and theory.

Are destructive emotions innately embedded in human nature? Can they be eradicated? A growing body of Western research has examined these and other questions through the perspectives of Eastern psychology and philosophy which view destructive emotions, perceptions, and behaviors as the primary source of human suffering. To alleviate this suffering, Eastern psychology has developed a rich and varied methodology for recognizing, reducing, transforming, and preventing these destructive forms of mind and emotion. After examining the nature and function of the afflictive mind/emotions, students will choose one emotion to study in-depth and develop effective East/West interventions to transform this emotion/state of mind.

In what ways do our constructive emotions/perceptions enhance our
ability to see reality? Are there effective methods for training the
mind to cultivate positive thought/emotions? Students will analyze the
nature of constructive emotion/thoughts, their influence on our mental
stability and brain physiology, and methodologies for influencing and
improving mental development and function. Students will explore the
correlation between mental training of the mind and physiological
changes in the brain. We will also examine the nature of the genuine
happiness from Eastern and Western psychological models of mind/emotion
as well as from a traditional epistemological model of cognition based
on Indo-Tibetan studies.

This program will investigate the relationship between philosophical ethics and evolutionary biology. In winter quarter we will further develop our understanding of evolutionary theory and of ethics. Central questions for winter quarter will include: Is the imperative of evolutionary fitness, defined as individual reproductive success, consistent with ethical behavior? Has our evolutionary history as social animals given us an intrinsic sense of moral concern for others? What, if any, are our ethical obligations to near and distant others, to family and to strangers, to other species, and to ecosystems and global ecology? In that context, we’ll develop an understanding of the ways in which ethics can be consistent with a naturalistic conception of the world and an understanding of the fundamental biological processes of life and of the evolution, diversity, and relationships among different forms of life on Earth.

In this two-quarter program we will read contemporary fiction, poetry, and essays as well as several theoretical texts that pertain to our central inquiries: What kind of knowledge do we encounter in fiction and poetry? What is the relation between the artifice of form and the experience of truth? In what way is the factual (that which we take to be given) also artefactual (that which has been made)? By what powers and strategies do poetry and fiction convey truths?Fall quarter will develop the coordinates of the inquiry via reading, writing, and visitors; winter extends the inquiry into our own writings. Required texts include poetry by modernists such as Ezra Pound, Wallace Stevens, and Gertrude Stein; and poetry and prose by Robert Duncan (from whom we take our course title) much of which was written in response to the generation of modernists who preceded him. The required texts are extremely diverse formally, but share overlapping preoccupations with memory and amnesia; metaphysics and transformation; realism and perception; and ethics and poetics.Fall quarter will be reading-intensive and comprised of seminars on the required texts; a range of writing exercises aimed towards generating material; and opportunities to hear and dialogue with visiting writers. In this quarter students will learn literary critical vocabulary and close reading skills. Winter quarter will involve an extended writing project and intensive writing workshops in small groups in which we will utilize the skills learned in the first quarter towards critiquing and revising student writing.

Students will work independently, studying the social, political, gender, and intellectual trajectories of the French Revolution from 1789 through the Terror and the Napoleonic Empire. To understand the origins of the Revolution, students will read philosophy and political theory from Enlightenment authors like Voltaire, Rousseau, and Montesquieu. Students will share a reading list in common and have the option to meet periodically for book discussions as a group and with the faculty member. Since this is an independent readings course, students enrolled at different credit levels will read different texts and write different numbers of essays. Students enrolled for more than 4 credits will complete a library research paper on one aspect of the Enlightenment or the French Revolution.

This is an opportunity for sophomore, junior and senior students to create their own course of study and research, including internship, community service, and study abroad options. Before the beginning of spring quarter, interested students should submit an Individual Learning or Internship Contract to Ryo Imamura, which clearly states the work to be completed. Possible areas of study are Western psychology, Asian psychology, Buddhism, counseling, social work, cross-cultural studies, Asian-American studies, religious studies, nonprofit organizations, aging, death and dying, deep ecology and peace studies. Areas of study other than those listed above will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Individual liberty and equality among all people are the ideals that drive nearly all modern political philosophy. These ideals raise for us the problem: By what right does any government have power over people? What could constitute legitimate political authority ? In this program, we will read classics of modern political pihlosophy, including works by Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Marx, and Mill, as well as some contemporary sources that extend as well as challenge the views of earlier thinkers. Students will also engage in research into contemporary political issues in connection with a political theory we study. Credit will be awarded in political philosophy.

We will begin with a short, intensive study of Marx's early work and selections from
, vol. 1 and track the themes raised there in a number of political-theoretical, literary-critical, and philosophical schools of thought, as well as reading a number of literary works that instantiate, provide materials for, or challenge these approaches. Our theoretical texts may be from Lukács, Bloch, Benjamin, Adorno, Althusser, Raymond Williams, Žižek, and Jameson, and our literary texts might include Flaubert, Melville, Poe, Sebald, and Kluge.

This program is built around intensive study of several fundamental areas of pure mathematics. Covered topics are likely to include abstract algebra, real analysis, set theory, combinatorics and probability.The work in this advanced-level mathematics program is quite likely to differ from students' previous work in mathematics, including calculus, in a number of ways. We will emphasize the careful understanding of the definitions of mathematical terms and the statements and proofs of the theorems that capture the main conceptual landmarks in the areas we study. Hence, the largest portion of our work will involve the reading and writing of rigorous proofs in axiomatic systems. These skills are valuable not only for continued study of mathematics but also in many areas of thought in which arguments are set forth according to strict criteria for logical deduction. Students will gain experience in articulating their evidence for claims and in expressing their ideas with precise and transparent reasoning.In addition to work in core areas of advanced mathematics, we will devote seminar time to looking at our studies in a broader historical, philosophical, and cultural context, working toward answers to critical questions such as: Are mathematical systems discovered or created? Do mathematical objects actually exist? How did the current mode of mathematical thinking come to be developed? What is current mathematical practice? What are the connections between mathematics and culture? What are the connections between mathematics and art? What are the connections between mathematics and literature?This program is designed for students who intend to pursue graduate studies or teach in mathematics and the sciences, as well as for those who want to know more about mathematical thinking.

This course will emphasize mindfulness psychology as a clinical tool as well as a method of professional self-care. Recent research has proven the effectiveness of mindfulness training to treat conditions such as stress and pain, addictions, chronic depression, anxiety, eating disorders, and other health conditions. Students will explore the similarities and differences between Mindfulness Psychology and Western Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy and gain practical skills to help alleviate the psychological suffering of others while maintaining emotional balance and professional ethics. Students will have opportunities for personal practice, observational learning, and the development of counseling skills through role-play, reading, and discussion.

.—Theodor Adorno,
How and why do we think about “modernity”? What do we mean when we say we are thinking about it? This program will largely be an investigation of modernity as it appears in and behind those discourses produced by and about its forces. These are questions that will lead us primarily into the realms of philosophy, political theory and political economy, sociology and literature.Along the way, we will try on a number of definitions of and arguments about what constitutes modernity, both in the sense of its causes and effects as well as its historical extension. Here are some of the questions we might ask:This program is designed for upper-division students interested in developing and refining their ability to work with complex historical texts and important ideas. An important part of our work will be to help one another develop the skills needed through seminar conversations, close reading sessions, writing workshops and individual and group projects and presentations. We will offer a 14-credit option to students of foreign language.

Have you ever felt that your mind and your body were just “out of sync”? How about the other experience—when your mind and body were working together flawlessly—when you felt “in the flow”? These kinds of experiences invite other questions about the relation between the mind and the body, questions that have been the focus of thinking and research in cultures around the world. There is, for examples, a tradition in Western philosophy that has emphasized the separation between the mind and the body. Other traditions emphasize mind/body interaction and unity. Does the mind control the body? Or is it the other way round? What can we learn about these questions if we challenge ourselves to use our bodies to interact precisely and skillfully with others? This is the kind of thing people do when they learn to move together in dance, to raise their voices in song, or to make music together.This program will explore the connections between the mind and the body through the media of music and dance. We will learn about the scientific investigation of the interaction between mind and body, especially in connection with the kinds of social activities that bring people together in communities of artistic endeavor—for example, a jazz band or dance group. We will examine both Eastern and Western philosophical traditions to see what we can learn about different ways of understanding the relationship between the mind and body as manifested in disciplines of motion and rest. We will also engage in practice involving music and dance, experiencing first hand the unity of thought and action.
The work of the program will include readings about music and dance from a variety of cultures as well as philosophical and scientific texts. The philosophical texts deal with the relationship between the mind and the body; the scientific texts provide information about brain function and what neuroscience can teach us about how the mind and body interact in music and dance. Students will write essays on the weekly readings in preparation for seminar discussions and a final research paper. They will also participate in workshop activities learning musical and dance skills. During the fall quarter the workshop emphasis was on building skills. At the end of fall quarter students, working in groups, created scripts of performance pieces combining music and dance. During winter our attention in the workshops will be directed toward developing those scripts into fully realized music and dance performances for presentation to an audience in the 9
week of the quarter.

How does shame differ from disgust, guilt and embarrassment? How does shame function both socially and individually? In this program, we will pursue a set of themes and questions clustered around . We will look at attempts in social psychology, sociology, psychoanalysis, and philosophy to define shame, to differentiate it from its neighboring emotions and states, and to understand how it functions both socially and individually. We will look at both general theories and case studies, ranging from topics like morality and moralization, marginalization, bodies and shame, the social life of the emotions, feminist critiques of shame, as well as turning our attention to “counter-shame” movements like sex positivity.Our work in psychoanalysis and philosophy will likely include readings by Freud, Lacan, Donald Winnicott, Slavoj Žižek, Hannah Arendt, and Michel Foucault. Our work in social psychology and sociology will draw from Silvan Tomkins, Erving Goffman, Michael Lewis, Thomas Scheff, June Tangney, and Susan Miller. And we will examine at least one novel that deals thematically with shame: Alison Bechdel’s graphic memoir, We will be reading broadly in both contemporary and historical texts, engaging in seminar discussion and writing workshops, and writing reflective, expository, and research papers on shame and related phenomena throughout the quarter.Although any background in the fields of psychology or philosophy will be helpful, successful participation in the inquiry does not depend on it. However, we do recommend the program for students with some lower division experience with the humanities and/or the social sciences.

This one-quarter critical and creative reading and writing program is designed for advanced students embarked on the composition of long-range and wide-ranging writing projects oriented toward or against or beyond the emergent occasions that surround us. Intensive independent writing and reading will be complemented by weekly seminars, small-group workshops, and weekly and semi-weekly lectures (
the Critical and Cultural Lecture Series and the Art Lecture series); occasional screenings and a local field-trip are possible as well.
“Language is fossil poetry,” Emerson declares. And indeed the radical sense of each term in this program’s subtitle offers substantial orientation for the various directions we might take:
in the sense of “decision” or “choice”;
in the sense of “making” (not only in what is called “poetry,” but also in other kinds of composition, whether in prose or verse, for the page or the stage or the screen);
in the sense of “making visible”;
in the sense of “action” or “doing.” All of which is to say that in addition to Emerson’s etymological enthusiasms we will be mindful withal of Wittgenstein’s no less fruitful suggestion that “the meaning of a word is its use.”
An expanded engagement with the question Montaigne had emblazoned on the rafters of his study —
— will guide us in our individual and collective inquiry: What do I know? And what do I do? How do I know and how do I do? How do we do? How do we know? How can we do things with words to find out? How might our writing become an instrument for conducting rigorous ethical and epistemological investigations designed to reconnect us, by means of our study (however elaborate or playful or recondite), back to the world we live in right now?

Western psychology has so far failed to provide us with a satisfactory understanding of the full range of human experience. It has largely overlooked the core of human understanding—our everyday mind and our immediate awareness of being—with all of its felt complexity and sensitive attunement to the vast network of interconnectedness with the universe around us. Instead, Western psychology has chosen to analyze the mind as though it were an object independent of the analyzer, consisting of hypothetical structures and mechanisms that cannot be directly experienced. Western psychology's neglect of the living mind--both in its everyday dynamics and its larger possibilities--has led to a tremendous upsurge of interest in the ancient wisdom of Asia, particularly Buddhism, which does not divorce the study of psychology from the concern with wisdom and human liberation.In contrast to Western psychology, Eastern psychology shuns any impersonal attempt to objectify human life from the viewpoint of an external observer and instead studies consciousness as a living reality which shapes individual and collective perception and action. The primary tool for directly exploring the mind is meditation or mindfulness, an experiential process in which one becomes an attentive participant-observer in the unfolding of moment-to-moment consciousness.Learning mainly from lectures, readings, videos, workshops, seminar discussions, individual and group research projects and field trips, in fall quarter we will take a critical look at the basic assumptions and tenets of the major currents in traditional Western psychology, the concept of mental illness and the distinctions drawn between normal and abnormal thought and behavior. In winter quarter, we will then investigate the Eastern study of mind that has developed within spiritual traditions, particularly within the Buddhist tradition. In doing so, we will take special care to avoid the common pitfall of most Western interpretations of Eastern thought—the attempt to fit Eastern ideas and practices into unexamined Western assumptions and traditional intellectual categories. Lastly, we will address the encounter between Eastern and Western psychology as possibly having important ramifications for the human sciences in the future, potentially leading to new perspectives on the whole range of human experience and life concerns.

This upper-division program is intended for students who are interested in the revolutionary philosophical theories that have shaped significant parts of contemporary political, social and cultural critiques. There will be a special focus on philosophy of language, phenomenology and post-structuralism, covering the work of Wittgenstein, Husserl, Arendt, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, Foucault, Derrida, and other 20th century European thinkers. These philosophers developed a vocabulary of concepts for understanding the relation of the individual mind to the cultural and interpersonal environment in which that mind develops and functions.Students will be expected to have some familiarity with the European philosophical tradition, solid academic writing skills, and some experience reading and analyzing dense philosophical texts. The activities of the program will include close reading and analysis of primary texts within the context of their composition and the writing of reflective, argumentative and synthetic essays in response to those texts. Much of the class time will be devoted to student-led seminar discussions. Students will be encouraged to explore connections between the theories encountered in the program readings and their own social, political and personal concerns. Students will write a culminating essay that may serve as a writing sample for application to graduate school.

This is an opportunity for students to work with faculty from a diverse set of disciplines on creative and scholarly projects. Students will come away with invaluable skills in library and archival research practices, visual arts studio practices, laboratory practices, film/media production practices, critical research and writing, and much more. Critical and Creative Practices is comprised of a diverse group of artists, theorists, scientists, mathematicians, writers, filmmakers and other cultural workers whose interdisciplinary fields of study sit at the crossroads between critical theoretical studies and creative engagement.
(social and political philosophy, aesthetics, philosophy of art) has interests in German idealism (Kant and Hegel), historical materialism (Marx, 20
C Marxists, and critical theory), and psychoanalysis (Freud and Lacan). She is currently working on an unorthodox project about Kant and Freud, under the working title “States of Partial Undress: the Fantasy of Sociability.” Students working with Kathleen would have opportunities to join her in her inquiry, learn about and pursue research in the humanities, and critically respond to the project as it comes together. In addition to work in Kantian aesthetics and Freudian dream theory, the project will involve questions about futurity, individual wishes and fantasies, and the possibility of collective and progressive models of sociability and fantasy.

Students of the humanities who are nearing the end of their Evergreen education may wish to pursue a major research project, senior thesis or capstone project in their particular field of interest. Often, the goal is to contruct an original argument around a particular body of literature, set of ideas or historical events. These kinds of projects develop advanced research skills in the humanities, including the ability to read deeply and critically in a particular field, and to discover and engage with important theoretical writings in that field. Students will also gain valuable skills in reading, analyzing, synthesizing, writing and editing long pieces of complex prose. The best kinds of this work will be invaluable for graduate school applications, and will be an asset to those entering the job market directly following graduation.
(European history) specializes in French history from the 18th century to the present, as well as the history of French colonies in North and West Africa. Students who wish to study European social, cultural, political, intellectual or religious history from the Middle Ages to the present, including topics in the history of gender and sociocultural aspects of the history of art, are welcome to propose research projects. Students are welcome to work with Dr. Davis on her ongoing research projects on 19th-century political prisoners, notions of citizenship and democracy in modern Europe, memory and the history of aging.
(American literature, queer theory) specializes in twentieth-century and contemporary literature and comparative American Studies (U.S./Brazil). His broad interests include the crossroads of aesthetics and politics, national versus transnational formations of literary studies, queer gender and sexuality, memory studies and poststructuralist theory. Most of the capstone projects he has supervised in the past have been centrally concerned with literary and cultural theory, including visual culture and queer theory. Students are enthusiastically welcome to work with Greg on his research on cultures of human rights and representations of human rights in literature and film.
(British/anglophone literature) specializes in the long eighteenth century (1650-1830), including the Restoration, the Enlightenment, and Romanticism. Students who wish to study the literature and political philosophy of these periods are welcome to propose research projects, including capstone projects and senior theses. Particular interests include the rise of the novel, the conception of reason and rationality and representations of space and place. Previous projects have included studies of Romantic women writers and travel writing. Students are also welcome to work with the faculty member to develop his ongoing research projects on such authors as Daniel Defoe, John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, Bishop Berkeley, Jonathan Swift and John Milton.Please go to the catalog view for specific information about each option.

Students of the humanities who are nearing the end of their Evergreen education may wish to pursue a major research project, senior thesis or capstone project in their particular field of interest. Often, the goal is to contruct an original argument around a particular body of literature, set of ideas or historical events. These kinds of projects develop advanced research skills in the humanities, including the ability to read deeply and critically in a particular field, and to discover and engage with important theoretical writings in that field. Students will also gain valuable skills in reading, analyzing, synthesizing, writing and editing long pieces of complex prose. The best kinds of this work will be invaluable for graduate school applications, and will be an asset to those entering the job market directly following graduation.
(American literature, queer theory) specializes in twentieth-century and contemporary literature and comparative American Studies (U.S./Brazil). His broad interests include the crossroads of aesthetics and politics, national versus transnational formations of literary studies, queer gender and sexuality, memory studies and poststructuralist theory. Most of the capstone projects he has supervised in the past have been centrally concerned with literary and cultural theory, including visual culture and queer theory. Students are enthusiastically welcome to work with Greg on his research on cultures of human rights and representations of human rights in literature and film.

Students of the humanities who are nearing the end of their Evergreen education may wish to pursue a major research project, senior thesis or capstone project in their particular field of interest. Often, the goal is to contruct an original argument around a particular body of literature, set of ideas or historical events. These kinds of projects develop advanced research skills in the humanities, including the ability to read deeply and critically in a particular field, and to discover and engage with important theoretical writings in that field. Students will also gain valuable skills in reading, analyzing, synthesizing, writing and editing long pieces of complex prose. The best kinds of this work will be invaluable for graduate school applications, and will be an asset to those entering the job market directly following graduation.
(European history) specializes in French history from the 18th century to the present, as well as the history of French colonies in North and West Africa. Students who wish to study European social, cultural, political, intellectual or religious history from the Middle Ages to the present, including topics in the history of gender and sociocultural aspects of the history of art, are welcome to propose research projects. Students are welcome to work with Dr. Davis on her ongoing research projects on 19th-century political prisoners, notions of citizenship and democracy in modern Europe, memory and the history of aging.

Students of the humanities who are nearing the end of their Evergreen education may wish to pursue a major research project, senior thesis or capstone project in their particular field of interest. Often, the goal is to contruct an original argument around a particular body of literature, set of ideas or historical events. These kinds of projects develop advanced research skills in the humanities, including the ability to read deeply and critically in a particular field, and to discover and engage with important theoretical writings in that field. Students will also gain valuable skills in reading, analyzing, synthesizing, writing and editing long pieces of complex prose. The best kinds of this work will be invaluable for graduate school applications, and will be an asset to those entering the job market directly following graduation.
(British/anglophone literature) specializes in the long eighteenth century (1650-1830), including the Restoration, the Enlightenment, and Romanticism. Students who wish to study the literature and political philosophy of these periods are welcome to propose research projects, including capstone projects and senior theses. Particular interests include the rise of the novel, the conception of reason and rationality and representations of space and place. Previous projects have included studies of Romantic women writers and travel writing. Students are also welcome to work with the faculty member to develop his ongoing research projects on such authors as Daniel Defoe, John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, Bishop Berkeley, Jonathan Swift and John Milton.